She Wolf
by StillAnAnimal
Summary: Rosalie has always yearned for a child of her own, and she'll do anything to get what she wants. Even steal from a familiar Quiluete family/Amber has grown up on lies and they're about to be uncovered when she phases & learns about a history and real love
1. Preface

**Rosalie's POV:**

Kissing Emmett just wasn't the same when I was in this mood. His touch didn't excite me in the least; which it usually did a lot. His big muscles could have been twigs and I wouldn't have noticed for once.

Bella and Edward now had their 'Happily Ever After'. Forever and ever. They were married and had their own little cottage with a beautiful daughter that blushed just like a human would; and slept so peacefully just like a little human baby would.

I knew that if I told Carlisle that I wanted a house just for Emmett and I; he wouldn't mind it in the least. What would be the point of a house with only two people who didn't need a bedroom to sleep in, or a kitchen to eat in, or even a bathroom to use dispose of human stuff?

My life could have been, would have been, so much more full of joy if I could just have a little baby to take care of. Emmett would be such a perfect father.

I couldn't adopt a baby; that was strictly against the rules. Eventually that baby would become older and more observant and have to know our vampire secret.

No one was supposed to know.

Such as, Bella Swan. I didn't care how many times people called her Mrs. Cullen now; she was in my mind, still a Miss Swan. If the secret would have been kept; none of this would have happened.

If she wouldn't have moved to Forks. If she didn't jump off that damn cliff. If she decided Jacob would be a better suitor for her; then maybe it would be possible for me to be happy.

"Emmett," I whispered inflexibly. "Stop."

Instantaneously he pulled his lips back from mine and loosened his grip around my waist. The look on his noble face was nearly inaccessible to read. "Is everything okay, Rose?" He questioned me, locking his golden eyes with my own. I frowned at his serious face and squeezed his right hand with my left.

Nobody knew Emmett like I did. Everyone else saw him as the big, funny, lovable teddy bear. And he was. He was able to love at such limits that I didn't even know were possible.

But he was also very serious about my well-being and safety. Though I was perfect and ravishing on the outside; I more often than not felt like I was caving in on the inside. Ever since Emmett and I fell in love I have been inexplicably craving a family on my own. A little boy with curly, dark hair. A little girl with golden locks and extravagant dresses.

It was my dream. And it had been taken from me such a long time ago. As much as I looked forward to being with Emmett for eternity; there would always be that missing piece of my heart.

And he knew that. He knew exactly what I longed for. Sometimes he even blamed himself for everything, but I told him over and over that it was all my fault. I couldn't blame Carlisle for being such a selfless person and for doing what he did. But I shouldn't have brought Emmett into this sad world of no end.

"Rosalie," I heard his light voice coo me. "Tell me what's wrong." His eyebrows were set low sternly and I could tell that I couldn't keep in the dry sobs much longer.

There was only one other thing that I could blame this sadness and anger on. "Let's go feed, Em, I'm dying for some mountain lion."

He didn't wait another moment to run out of the room and down the stairs while I was being dragged along with him. Once we were outside we let go of each other and began to run North; towards an area that was heavily populated with wildlife. The wind flew through my hair quickly and my feet felt like they were running on air. I inhaled the scent of a mountain lion only a mile away so I sped up and pounced.

Five minutes later and I had managed to suck three lions absolutely dry while Emmett got himself in a fight with a grizzly and shared the overly-warm blood with me. My throat was still burning just a little... yearning for some more blood.

I whipped my head to the East to see if I could smell any other close, large mammals. But, in one inhale, I could smell something that made my senses go crazy... there was a strong scent of human blood only ten miles to the East. Before I tried to stop myself, Emmett and I were off, forgetting about everything else. Over and over I kept telling myself I was just curious on what and how the blood was such a strong aura.

Soon we were approaching the end of the woods. The smell was getting unbearable. I slowed down to a human running pace and he did the same. The blood was just near the road. It was an open wound too... Yet, I could smell another thing. Something I hated to be familiarized with... the smell of dog. I snorted but walked out the woods with Emmett's hand.

A gasp escaped my throat as I looked at the scene only feet in front of us. Sam Uley's car had been hit head on by another small car. Inside the other vehicle I saw a guy who was dead, because I couldn't pick up a heartbeat. He smelled good. But, in front of me, was Sam kneeling over another corpse. He was giving CPR to his wife: Emily Young. He obviously was too stubborn to realize that her heart was at a halt. He looked up at us and hissed. I scowled at him but stood where I was. I could hear another heartbeat in the car... it was fast and pumping hard. I couldn't recall hearing it before until I heard the loud wail coming from the backseat. A baby. Sam and Emily's baby.

I remember six months ago when I had heard that they finally had a kid. The wave of jealousy ran over me again. Slowly, I let go of Emmett's hand and walked up towards the car. Inside I saw the face of Amber. She looked alone and afraid. My heart swelled up and I wanted nothing more than to reach in and grab her. To hold her safely in my arms and pretend that she was mine.

"Cullen." I heard a sharp voice yell behind me. Sam had finally given up and now had Emily in his arms. He was looking over in the direction of Emmett. "I have no reason to be in this world without her. If she's gone... I want to be gone too..." The matter in which he spoke spooked me a little. Vampire venom was very toxic to the shape shifters.

Emmett looked at him, then up at me, very confused. "If I bite you, Sam, I don't think I could stop."

Sam's eyes narrowed and he growled. "I don't care. Throw me in the ocean, suck me dry, do whatever you want... as long as I can't feel this pain anymore."

"It doesn't have to be like this..." Emmett said defensively. Of course Emmett would try and talk him out of this sort of suicide. "You have a baby you can have the rest of your life... you can't leave this world yet."

Sam scoffed, but looked longingly up at the car I was standing next to. "Give her to Leah. Leah is like an aunt to her. I can trust you with that, Rosalie, can't I?"

It was very extraordinaire that he spoke my first name and talked to me like he was talking to a friend or a relative. I lied easily to him, "Of course."

He looked back at Emmett now, his knees starting to quiver and almost give out. "Please. Emmett. Take me away," he looked away, at the ground, ashamed.

Emmett nodded and the two of them ran in to the woods. Sam discussed to Emmett about Emily's body. He wanted her to be put back in the car like she was had been driving. Eventually some one would find her and she would be able to have a proper funeral in a casket. He also said that he didn't care what happened to his body.

It amazed me on how calm he was, talking about his own life and fate in the world. Leaving it as if it meant nothing to him. I guess I couldn't understand since I couldn't do the freaky imprinting stuff.

I turned back to the car and opened the back door. I took Amber from her car seat and wrapped her in my arms. She continued to cry, but I assumed that was because she wanted her mother or father. That wasn't going to happen.

Quickly I checked her over for open wounds or broken wounds but by some miracle she was completely fine. I held her to my chest and inhaled her sweet scent. A year ago and I wouldn't have been able to be this close to a human, but Nessie being born helped a lot. Besides, I couldn't bring myself to want t hurt this darling little girl. Her black hair was long for an infant's and her eyes were a dark and deep brown. He skin color was dark just like everything else and it was very soft.

Emmett returned with a dark look in his eyes and his lips a bit red. He had Emily's body on his shoulder and he buckled her up in the front driver's seet. I growled and clung Amber closer to me, hiding her face in my shoulder gently. Emmett gave me a peculiar look.

It only take seconds to realize what I was thinking. "Rose," he said, careful to stay a few feet away, "No. We can't do that. We have to leave her here until some one shows up and finds her."

"Emmett, don't tell me what I can't have." I knew I was playing unfairly, but I had to get him on my side. "She can be ours. We can leave... go to Africa again. We'll grow her up there and it will be perfect." The vision looked perfect inside of my head.

He looked at me with a wild expression, but let all that information in. He looked like he was coming around. He smiled at me and walked towards me to give me a tender kiss on the lips. "Whatever you want, Babe."

**Sooo... it's my new story. Tell me what you think. Good plot? Bad narration? How did I do on portraying Rosalie? Review and stay tuned for more chapters of **_**She Wolf**_**.**


	2. Brown Eyed Girl

"_Hiding behind a rainbow's wall,  
Slipping and sliding  
All along the water fall, with you  
My brown eyed girl,  
You my brown eyed girl."_

_-Van Morrison_

**Amber's POV:**

"Amber Cullen! What have you done to your dress?" I heard my mom shriek at me the second my father and I got in to view.

"But, Rose," my dad almost growled as he continued to give me a piggy back ride over to where she was standing in a fixed position. Her lips were pursed and her hands were tightly on her hips. Her golden hair rested on her shoulders and her topaz gaze rested on me.

"Don't you 'but, Rose' me! Emmett, you can't keep taking her out like that! Her clothes are constantly getting ruined and-" I tuned the rest of her lecture out and I inquired if dad was doing the same thing.

Rolling my eyes as she went to on to altercate, I kept my eyes on other things. Around me was thousands and thousands of trees that were hundreds and hundreds of feet tall. According to what my dad told me, we lived in a jungle. There were leopards, sizable insects, and brightly colored birds.

In fact, my dad had just taken me up near the canopies of the trees to see all the aviary life. He jumped branch from branch until we were all the way to the top and I could see miles around me.

"Cool, huh?" he had asked me, holding me in his lap as if I were still a young child.

I nodded, but my mind was somewhere else at the time. Contemplating everything.

"I see you've got your head in the clouds today, kiddo," he joked lightly while I smiled at his lame joke.

"How come you and mom are so strong and so fast and I'm not?" I questioned him, very interested in how he would answer it.

"You know that, hun. Mom explained to you what we are. We're what people call vampires and we like to suck blood. Lots of blood," he grinned as he pretended to bite in to my neck. I playfully swatted at his face.

"Well, I get that. But mom explained to me what genetics are. If you both are vampires, shouldn't I be one too? And how come I have dark skin when both of my parents have pale skin? Why are my eyes a dirty brown and you both have strong and yellow irises?" Of course I had asked these questions the moment I turned ten years old and I was starting to wonder why we lived in a jungle and away from civilization. Momma taught me all about the other places in the world but, how come we didn't visit them?

Out of nowhere dad tensed around me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders tightly. His muscles were flexed around me and I tried to turn around to see the expression on his face. But, before I knew it, he had swung me onto his back and was now jumping branch by branch down to the ground faster than ever.

"Dad!" His rushing was scaring me. "Is something wrong?" My head started to spin and I nearly fainted as he took off faster than he normally would with me.

He didn't answer me. I'm not sure I would have heard him anyways... with the way my head was reeling. It took us a lot less longer to get home than it should have. My head felt better as we got closer.

I turned my head back and forth, now in the present time. At first, when my mom had started to lecture me, I had forgotten about my dad being worried and rushing home so quick.

"Rose!" Dad cut her off in between her criticizing my messed up hair and my muddy white shoes. "Some one's here." He said through his teeth.

Abruptly, my mom stopped and grabbed me off his back and in her arms. "I'll take her inside. Go talk to them... they're probably just hunting in the area. I don't want them anywhere near her," she spoke as if I weren't right in front of her and I felt myself start to cling onto her arms as she dragged me in our house.

Once we got in, she didn't seem to care that I tracked mud on the floor as she led me to the basement. She held me close to her while slowly swaying me. "Now, you must be quiet, Amber," she whispered up at me.

It was actually just two weeks ago when I finally outgrew my mother. Now I was two inches taller than her, and only three inches shorter than dad. It kind of freaked me out, since I was only a teenager.

It felt like forever, my mom and I standing there, waiting for something to happen. I was beginning to worry about dad. Would he be all right?

After ten minutes my nose picked up the husky scent of my father along with two others that smelled sweet. Since when had I been able to sense smells from afar? Maybe I was becoming a vampire. It could happen.

I looked down as my mom sighed. "Alice," she said, sweetly, and ran out of the house. I followed behind her at a slower pace. When I reached the back doors I saw my parents along with the two others I had sniffed out.

One, the female, was very short. She had small hands and small feet and small everything. Her dark hair was almost to her shoulders and spiky and she had the same color of eyes as my parents. The other was a male, he was about the same height as my father and he had honey colored hair.

"Oh, Alice!" My mom squealed, wrapping the little female into a tight hug. Meanwhile, the male and my father seemed to be wrestling on the ground, chuckling.

"Rose, we're glad you two are all right!" Alice's tinkling voice rejoiced. Her and mom let go of each other and she stared at me, slightly tilting her head. "Amber?" She inquired to me.

I nodded my head slowly. Surely, I would remember if I had met her before. I couldn't recall though.

My mom turned around to look at me and exhaled before yelling. "Amber! Change out of that dress and those shoes! You're filthy... we have company, you know."

"Yes, mom." I felt myself roll my eyes at her as I turned to head into the house. How could my mom worry about my outfit right now? I ran up to my room. But instead of getting dressed, I opened my window and stuck my head out. I could hear their conversation, though they were on the other side of the house.

"What possessed you two to come and find us?" My mom asked, playfully. She wasn't mad. I could imagine her standing there with her breathtaking smile.

"We're not exactly here on a happy note, Rosalie..." the unknown male's voice said.

I heard a small sigh. "We need you both to come back to Washington."

"You're all still living in Forks, Jasper?" My dad asked, very incredulous. I didn't know where Forks was, but I knew that Washington was a Northwestern state in the United States of America.

"No, we live about twenty miles south of La Push in Kalaloch. It's far enough from Forks that we're not fearing anyone will recognize us," the vampire male, named Jasper, said.

My mom growled. "Afraid to stray away from the mongrel, are they?"

"Rose! Jacob is part of our family now. In fact, Nessie and Jake live on their own now, in Oil City. That way Jake is close to the pack and Nessie is close to us. It's a great compromise."

This all sounded like it was in Latin to me. Nessie? Jacob? Pack? My parents must have had a real life before they had me.

There was a second of silence before another one spoke. Jasper. "Your daughter. She's confused," he stated. Uh-oh... maybe somehow they knew I was eavesdropping. I was about to close my window when I heard him say, "You haven't told her the truth, have you?" I froze. The truth?

"Emmett," my mom whispered sweetly, but I could still hear her. "Why don't you take these two for a tour around our part of the jungle? I smell a jaguar not to far off into the East."

Before I could close my window, my mom was in my room, glaring at me. "Amber! Eavesdropping is not polite."

Usually I would have felt shameful for doing such a thing, but I just glared back at her. "What aren't you telling me? Who are these people they speak of?"

Her face looked defeated. "Amber, please change into some nice clothes. I'll make you some dinner... your dad and I will explain when he gets back, all right?" She frowned and came over to me. She hugged me tightly and looked like she wanted to cry. I suddenly felt bad for being so hostile. But, before I could apologize, she was gone downstairs.

To make her happy I dressed in a yellow knee-length dress that I knew would please my mother. I had trouble zipping up the back alone but managed it. I pulled on some hosiery since I hadn't shaved my legs in a few days, then slips on white flats to match my white flower necklace. I looked in the mirror and sighed. My hair was thin and flat. No matter how many times mama had tried to curl it, it never even waved. This was another thing I worried about... both of my parents had curly hair, how come I didn't?

"Amber! Dinner!" Mom's voice startled me but I rushed down the stairs and into our formal dining room. I saw my parents along with Alice and Jasper sitting around the table. In front of my mom was a chicken Cordon Bleu, and I licked my lips before taking a seat. Mom handed me my dinner and I began to eat.

Nobody took their eye off me until I finished. It was very uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Now, sweetie?" My dad looked over at my mom. They both had very sad faces. What was so wrong?

My mom nodded and grabbed an envelope from Alice. "Amber, honey," she reached over and cradled my chin with her hand. "Your father and I have something very important to tell you-"

"Please don't be mad," my father interrupted. I hated seeing my dad's face made so serious.

"Back when you were very young... only a few months old, actually..." my mom said, obviously beating around the bush.

"We found you inside a car that had just been wrecked. Both of your..." My mom gulped. I sat there like a fool with my mouth wide open and my hands gripping the table.

"_Biological_ parents," my dad continued for her. "Had died."

"What!" I screamed, not caring if I didn't mind my manners.

Mom starting rubbing her hand through my hair. "You're... adopted, sweetie."

I pried myself away from her hands and threw myself against the wall behind me. My anger was so great I felt I could explode. They weren't my real parents? Why didn't they tell me sooner! My real mom and dad were _dead_!

"Jasper!" I heard Alice scream, and everyone started to back away from me. I growled at them, meaninglessly, and screamed some more. What was wrong with me? What was wrong with this woman and man who lied to me and told me I was their own!

And then it happened. It was indescribable. Hear I was, one moment, sitting against the was furious. Then, I was on all fours covered in fur that was to the floor. I screamed, very scared, and it only came out as a howl.


	3. King of Pain

"_I have stood here before inside the pouring rain_

_With the world turning circles, running around my brain._

_I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign,_

_But it's my destiny to be the queen of pain."_

_-Alanis Morissette_

I howled long, still wondering how I made such a sound. I started to shake, questioning what the hell was happening! My parents looked at me in horror, while Alice and Jasper looked at me with sad eyes.

"Emmett! Get her outside!" My mom screeched at my father. My dad didn't need to move an inch. I fled the room in an instant and headed outside, breaking through the door frame that I didn't fit in.

"Amber!" My dad's voice boomed towards me. I stopped in my tracks suddenly. He came up behind me and started stroking my neck. My thoughts went back to what had happened right before I turned into a monster. This man had been lying to me my entire life! I barked at him and ran across the yard.

"Amber," he pleaded. "Your mother and I love you so, so much... You must see that we only kept this from you because we didn't want you to be sad about Sam and Emily's death."

Hearing their names for the first time made me want to cry. I wondered if they would have been better parents than the people who raised me. They would have never kept such a huge secret from me. Suddenly, Jasper was at my side. He wasn't glaring at me, but instead he had a soft and kind face.

I found myself calming down more as Jasper looked at me. I fell to the ground and felt my anger just slip away. I couldn't explain how relaxed I felt that moment. Mom came skipping over to me with an outfit that was neatly folded. What was going on here?

Before I knew what exactly had happened, I was suddenly small again. I was lying on the ground, as human as can be. And I was naked. Mom handed me my clothes and I realized that everyone else had gone back into the house. I thanked her and slipped the panties, bra, and dress on. I was still calm. My knees felt wobbly. I fell to the ground, almost asleep.

"All right Jasper," my mom hissed. No doubt he could still hear her from inside the house. "Your gift is working a little too well."

I thought she was going to yell at me for getting dirt on my dress, but instead she picked me up and carried me in the house. By the time I was sitting on the couch, I felt normal again. I couldn't bring myself to be angry, yet I wasn't calm either. "What are you doing to me?" I asked Jasper politely.

He chuckled. "I don't know if you par- Emmett and Rosalie have explained this to you, but some of us vampires possess gifts. I can control people's emotions. In fact, right now I'm keeping you at a normal level. Though I can tell you wish to be rather furious."

I nodded but sunk back in the couch, trying not to cry. My entire life was a lie. And why the hell was I just a wolf?

"Amber." My mother called for my attention. I slowly lifted my head to look at her across the room. "Now that you're less frantic... please, let us explain to you what happened, okay? We want you to know everything." Dad appeared at her side and held her hand.

The next three minutes was a complete roller coaster for me. I felt like sobbing when I learned how my real mother had been killed. But then also warmed by how Sam had tried so vigorously to save her. My anger reached it's high when my dad told what he had done to Sam. Yet, love was complicated. Perhaps, if I were in that situation, I'd do the same thing. My heart almost melted from the love I heard in my mother's voice as she described me as a baby.

"There you were," she sighed happily. "The most beautiful girl in the world. A gift that must have been sent from the Heavens, you were. Your eyes captivated me. I couldn't follow Sam's orders to hand you over to Leah, I had fallen in love with you." If she could cry, she'd be sobbing right now. Tears were coming out of my eyes.

"Leah?" I asked quietly. They hadn't mentioned her in the story they told me.

"Leah was your mother's cousin. They were sort of close, you could say. I'm sorry, baby," mom came over and wrapped her arms around me.

I didn't hug her back. I simply asked her if she knew what had just happened to me. The answer was very odd, I must say. Sam was part of a pack... a pack of shape shifters. Most of the times, girls don't phase into wolves. I was the exception, along with this infamous Leah. But since I was surrounded with so many vampires, my instinct was to phase to protect myself. I sobbed when my mother told me that I would turn into that creature whenever I got very angry.

"Soon enough you'll learn to control your anger, though." Alice came over and started rubbing my back soothingly. "And then, if you so please, you can stop phasing forever."

I growled unintentionally at her. "There's not silver lining to this. I turn into an abominable and carnal beast!"

"It's not so bad, Am." Dad came and crouched in front of me at the couch. He had a goofy smile on his face. "You're practically immortal! You have amazing strength, speed, and agility! Not to mention that you get to live forever."

"Emmett," Mom hissed at him. He turned to her and picked her up in his arms.

"Come on, Rose. Lighten up, baby." He teased. Her face didn't let a smile take over the frown.

"Speaking of such..." Alice interrupted and trailed off. "We did have a reason for deciding to visit, you know."

Mom jumped out of dad's arms and approached Alice. "Is everyone all right?" She sounded all right. Who was she inquiring about.

Alice's face heartbroken. Jasper came along side her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "It's about Nessie," he said with no emotion.

Mom's eyes widened and dad caught significance in the conversation as well. "What's wrong with Nessie, Alice?"

"The Volturi are coming to Washington to check up on her. And I had a vision... they want to experiment with her... figure out if she's fertile," she spoke icily.

Both my parents looked horrified. "What can we do to help her?" Asked my father.

"Well... as you can imagine, none of us are going to let Nessie be taken away," Jasper spoke now. "We're expecting a fight. And we need numbers... I've even got Peter coming. It's going to be a huge fight," he sighed.

Mom and dad exchanged glances. "What about Amber? We can't just leave her here in the jungle..."

"Bring her with. She doesn't have to fight with us," said Alice.

I took this all in. My parents might be leaving? To go fight? Fight who? As mad as I was at them right now, I wouldn't let them be harmed. "Mom, who's Nessie?" I found myself speaking before I thought. "Why do we have to fight for her?"

Mom was about to speak, but Alice held up an envelope. "Here's some pictures" She handed the envelope to mom.

Alice took a seat to the right of me, and my mother to the left. She opened the envelope and picked up the first picture. "Renesmee..." she trailed off. She handed me the picture. I gasped. This woman was beautiful. More stunning than mother! She had bronze colored curls that flowed down to her backside. Beside her was a dark man, his arm wrapped around her waist securely. They looked at each other in the picture. A blind man could see that these two were in love. "How is she?" Mom asked Alice.

"She was doing quite well before this Volturi situation came up. Her and Jacob are engaged," she smiled.

"Already?" Mother sighed.

"Well, Nessie was full grown by the time she was seven. That's when her and Jacob fell in love... It's been nine years. They've been holding off getting the wedding for years. Nessie kept hoping that you two would come back," she said sadly. "Her father is practically forcing her to keep her virtue until she's married, of course. It's been hard for those two."

Mom frowned. "I feel terrible," she said. "I missed all those precious years with her." She pulled out the next picture and smiled.

Alice laughed, "I figured I'd bring this one for laughs."

Mom handed the picture to me. In it were three women and four men. I almost didn't recognize my own parents along all the others. They were dressed in such goofy clothes. "Mom!" I exclaimed, shocked that mother would be caught dead in that outfit. "What are you wearing?"

Both women giggled like girls. "Oh, Amber, the 80's did that to us. Trust me, it was very fashionable at the time." I shook my head, then focused in on the others in the picture.

I pointed at the small, dark haired girl. "That's you Alice," I smiled, then pointed out another. "And there's Jasper!" I giggled at what they were wearing and how their hair was styled. "Who are these other three though?"

"The man with the red hair is Edward. He's Nessie's dad. The other two are Esme and Carlisle. They were parent figures, in a way," my mom explained to me.

"They're all beautiful..." I trailed off as mom pulled out the next one. In this picture there were eight people. They were all wearing normal clothes and had normal hair-do's. Alice and Jasper were in in. Along with Esme, Carlisle, and Esme. Even Nessie and Jacob were included. I found myself surprised to remember all their names. There was a female with Edward that I didn't recognize, though. "Who's she?"

"Bella," said Alice. "She's new to the family. She's Edward's mate and Nessie's mother." Now that she mentioned it, I could see all the similarities.

Another picture was pulled out. I counted out nine men. There was only one female in the picture. None of the men had shirts on and wore denim shorts. A few were shoving food down their throats, while one or two held up bunny ears behind others' heads. I laughed at that. They all had dark skin, hair, and eyes. They kind of looked like me. Especially the female... We looked a lot alike. "Is this Emily?" I found myself choking up.

Alice rubbed my shoulder. "No, that's Leah. And this is the wolf pack we told you about. There's Jacob, Embry, Quil, Brady, Collin, Delsin, Elan, Pat, Takoda, and Leah," she pointed to each member as she spoke their name.

"And they're all shape shifters like me?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Yes, Jacob's their alpha now. They protect La Push and cities nearby from danger," Alice explained. Mom pulled out the last picture in the envelope.

It was only two people. A man and a woman. The woman had scars running down the entire left side of her face and disappeared into the dress she was wearing. She was wearing a white and poofy gown with a veil on top. There was a big lump coming from her stomach, and she had one of her hands resting on it. It was a wedding photo. The man had her pulled into a hug, and they were looking at the camera with cheesy smiles. You could tell that they would much rather be looking at each other.

"This is Sam and Emily on their wedding day. It took almost two months before you were born," said Alice quietly. I ripped the photo from my mother's hands and held it close to me. My mother and father. I wanted to cry.

"Please excuse me," I said politely and stood up. I ran past my dad with the picture in my hand and outside where it was now raining. I decided to leave the photo on the back porch so it wouldn't get soaked. I ran far into the forest, running as fast as my mom and dad would. I couldn't tell if I was crying, because of the water that was pouring down on my head. My legs felt weak from my crushed spirit, but I began to climb the tree dad and I had been on earlier. I climbed for minutes before reaching the canopy. I through myself on top of the tree and started sobbing. You could probably hear me for miles. I felt like a little girl, screaming and crying so loudly. But I didn't care. My heart felt heavy and I couldn't get my legs to move.

I was paralyzed with distress. It took all my strength to crawl myself at the edge of the branch I was resting on. I didn't even think before throwing myself to the ground. I flew hundreds of feet, hoping that I could end my pain with physical pain instead. Never would I imagine myself giving up my life. I had read about it in many books... people killing themselves. Who would know I would be so selfish?

I hit the ground with a thump. I heard several things crack, but then I felt them rearranging themselves together again. I was immortal now. Of course I couldn't die.

I was hit with a wave of realization. Would Sam and Emily, wherever they were, be watching me now? Would they be disappointed at what I had done? Was I worrying them? I got to my feet and looked at the wet sky. "If you can hear me," I whispered ever so silently. "I love you. And I can't kill myself over what happened. Emmett and Rosalie love me and I love them."

Thunder cracked and I took that as a sign that they heard me and that they loved me too. I ran back to the house, smiling widely. My parents were standing on the back porch, looking worried out of their minds. I ran into their arms and apologized over and over.

"It's all right," said mother.

I looked up at both of them in a hug. "When are we leaving to Washington?"


	4. Pink Houses

"_Oh but ain't that America for you and me,_

_Ain't that America something to see, baby. _ _Ain't that America home of the free,_ _Little pink houses for you and me."_ _-John Mellencamp_

The entire journey to Washington was very odd. I saw so many things that I had only read about in books. First we hiked up to Egypt, that only took six hours. It felt so weird to be running for so long and not get tired. Even my parents, carrying multiple suitcases, never let up. The five of us ran through the jungle, stopping once to feed. I absolutely refused to kill an animal. Of course, I ate meat, but killing something just seemed a lot more cruel.

When we got to Cairo I phased back into human form. I was still getting used to this whole phasing in and out thing. Mom gave me a dress and accessories to dress in. Cairo was such a huge city... again, I had only read about such huge places in books. There were so many people, I found myself clinging onto my father's arm.

He laughed. "You're hanging out with vampires and you're afraid of a few mere humans?" I laughed with him, glad to see he was back to his normal self. I still held onto his arm though, afraid I might lose him in the crowd.

Though, that might have been impossible to lose four vampires. They were beginning to smell quite foul to me... too sweet, that is. I could pick out their scent for miles away, it seemed like.

We got tickets to New York. I asked mother why we couldn't just fly to Washington, and she sighed. "Flights aren't always convenient. When we get to New York, we'll see if there's one to Seattle."

Alice chimed in. "There is. I'll call the airport to make sure they reserve five tickets."

I was still getting used to her odd, physic power.

The airport was huge... I wondered how much jungle could fit in such a place? I was already missing all the green. In cities, everything seemed to be white. It was such a cold color.

The plane ride freaked me out. I sat by the window and felt like crying when I saw how high we were off the ground. We flew over jungles, which relaxed me. When we reached the ocean is when I really began to freak out. I grabbed on to my mom. "What if we crash, ma?"

She laughed. "We won't, sweetie. Besides, if we do, we're first class. We'll get a parachute for you and we'll survive the drop. Then we'll swim to New York."

That didn't make me feel any better.

Finally, I saw land up ahead. An hour later we hand landed in New York. Quickly, we hurried out of the plane and ran across the airport to make our next flight. We could only run human speed, and that bugged me a bit.

Our tickets were second class... that was all that was left. We were spread out through the plane, I ended up sitting next to this boy and his father. The boy looked my age. He offered me the window seat and I thanked him. I was getting a rush, talking to all these new people.

"What's your name?" The boy asked, after ordering himself and I glasses of water.

"My name is Amber," I said. "What is your name?"

He smiled. "Amber's a pretty name. I'm Nate." He reached for my hand.

I stared at him, wondering what I should do. I put out my hand and he took it in his, then brought it up to his mouth and kissed it. I gasped and pulled my arm back to my body. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I screamed, not caring who heard.

My father came up and looked at me. The flight attendant tried to get him to sit down, but he wouldn't budge. "Amber, what's wrong?"

"He kissed my hand!" I said, pointing to Nate beside me.

Dad chuckled. "So?"

"So what? I believe that is highly improper for a guy who has just met my acquaintance!" I yelled in just a whisper.

Dad rolled his eyes. "You're too much like your mother. Come on, we'll trade seats, all right?" He pulled me out of my seat and led me to another. I thanked him and he left to go to sit down.

I sat next to a couple who were sleeping. I yawned, realizing just now how tired I was. I felt the plane take off, and I fell asleep myself.

I woke up, what must have been several hours later, to mother shaking my shoulders. "Amber! We're here, wake up sweetie!" I opened my eyes and smiled at her.

"Is Leah going to be there?" I asked, hopefully.

She shook her head. "We'll be greeted by Esme. They didn't want to send too many people to Seattle." She lowered her voice so it was too quiet for a human to hear. "They're expecting the Volturi any day now."

I nodded, disappointed. But I was sure I'd get to meet Leah and everyone else at some point during the trip. I couldn't wait to meet the pack... People like me.

We got off the plane and were welcomed by the brunette lady named Esme who looked the same as she did in the picture, only her hair and clothes were a bit different. She gave both my mother and father long hugs. She smelled repulsive, just like the others. She opened her arms to me and I gave her a polite hug. "Amber," she whispered. "You're so grown up!"

I smiled at the comment and we left the airport. We climbed into a Jeep. My father, for some odd reason, was very excited. He drove very fast through Seattle. After an hour, I started seeing more trees. They were odd-looking trees though. Even though it was cold outside, they were still green. They were very tall, just as tall as the ones back at home.

It took us almost two hours to get to our destination, even with father's insane driving. He turned into a dirt road that took minutes to get down. I could smell more vampires up ahead.

The house I saw was quite exquisite, to say the least. I grabbed my two suitcases and got out. I followed everyone up the front stairs and into this home. Many people greeted us.

I recognized Edward, Bella, Carlisle, and Nessie from the photos I had seen. They all hugged my parents for long periods of time. My mother wouldn't let go of Nessie. "Renesmee! You're so beautiful, sweetie!" She exclaimed, multiple times over and over.

Bella came over to me and pulled me in a gentle hug. "Welcome home, Amber." She said sweetly, though she reeked. After that, the entire room stared at me, now realizing I was here.

Nessie ran up to me and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. "Hi Amber!" She said enthusiastically. "Wow, I can't wait until Jake gets home from work! He'll be so excited to see you!"

"Jake?" I asked quietly. "Is he the man in this picture?" I asked, pulling out the picture of her and the dark man that I had kept in my jacket pocket. I showed it to her and she nodded, smiling very widely.

"Yes, that's my Jacob!" She laughed, and I tucked the photo back in my pocket.

After that, Carlisle introduced me to everyone else in the room... Some had very odd names and some had dark red eyes that scared me. "They're only staying temporarily, they'll be leaving after the Volturi have come and gone. I know the smell must be driving you insane, but I assure you, you'll get used to it," he spoke calmly.

How did he know that they all smelled horrible to me?

Another smooth voice chimed in. "Vampires and shape shifters have never smelled that great to one another." It was Edward. I gave him a peculiar look. "Rosalie and Emmett must have forgotten to mention that I can read minds."

My eyes widened and I tried to keep my mind blank, afraid he might pick apart my thoughts.

Edward laughed. "Don't worry about that, Amber. I don't like to pry. I'll give you your privacy."

_Thank you_, I thought. Nessie came and grabbed me by the arm.

"Come on, I'll show you to your room. I got it all ready for you and everything!" She held on to my elbow tight and pulled me up the stairs in the next room. I hastily grabbed my suitcases and tried to familiarize myself with the decor. It was just so different than what I was used to.

Mother preferred everything to be purple's, red's, and brown's. She said that it made the house warm and more dramatic. Mother just loved to dramatize things.

Everything in this house was much more warm than ours in Africa was. It seemed that even though they had mostly white walls and pops of colors with the shelves, candles, and drapes it was more relaxing and _warm_.

_Do you like the house? _The random question popped into my head. It wasn't my thought though... it sounded like Nessie's voice. I popped my eyes open at her.

_Oh, right. _The voice said. "Sorry, Amber. I forgot to mention that I can push my thoughts into other people's minds just by touching them with my hands." She stopped suddenly and pressed her hand softly on my cheek. She showed me a picture. _My apartment, _she thought. It was very big and spacy. _That's where Jacob and I live._

"Oh," I said thoughtlessly. She smiled and removed her hand from my cheek and placed it on a door knob behind her back. She opened it slowly.

"I welcome thee to thy room!" Nessie said theatrically as she twirled around the room. I didn't even look at the room as I watched her dance so quickly. I had never seen some one with so much energy. She stopped to look at me. "Oh, sorry. I tend to get a little over excited about some things," then she carried on.

I gave her a weird look. "Can you read my mind also?"

She stopped again to look at me. "No. I'm just really good at reading people, which I get from my father," she giggled and I heard a slight chuckle coming from downstairs. "Noowwww," she grabbed my luggage from me and put it on to the bed in the middle of the room. "A tour around the room!" She gestured towards each object, telling me a brief history. She mentioned a couple things like 'cordless phone' and 'computer' that I had read about, but I still wasn't quite sure on their functions. She even showed me that I had my own bathroom. It was huge! I hadn't a clue why anyone would need such a large tub to bathe in.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror over the sink. I frowned at my reflection. Some of my hair was messed up and I had a few hairs on my black shirt. I couldn't help but compare myself to Nessie's flawless figure. I felt insecure with my smaller hips and breasts. I also felt like a giraffe among a lion. Why was I so tall? Why was Nessie so beautiful?

"Oh, Amber! You've got plenty of growing to do!" Nessie told me, noticing how my face fell while looking at my reflection. "Well, not vertically... but you just became a wolf, right? Trust me, in a week, you'll have a beautiful figure!" She giggled and twirled out of the room. "Come on, now! I want to show you my guest bedroom!"

I followed behind her slowly as she danced out the door and down the hall. We came upon a room with a door that was made of red wood and had floral engravings in it. She opened it and I saw the entire room was like the door... red and surrounded by flowers. She had roses hanging from the ceiling, and tulips wrapped around her bedpost and a fair amount of other things.

She touched her hand to my cheek again. _Jacob knows how much I love flowers, so almost every day he buys me some arrangement... I've run out of space at my apartment so I started decorating my room with them._

"That's really nice of him," I commented.

A buzz came from Nessie's front pocket and I could see a light glowing through the thin sweater material. She put one finger up towards me, turned away and brought the object out of her pocket and to her ear.

"Hello, honey! How was work?" She exclaimed, as if she were talking to some one. Perhaps it was some sort of telephone... but it wasn't connected to anything!

"Oh. No. No, that's fine. I'll stay the night here. Yep. I'll talk to you later. Good-bye. Aw, me neither! All right, all right. We have company over, darling. Now, good-bye. Of course, love you too." She turned back to me as the shoved the object back into her pocket. "Oh, sorry. That was Jake, he's stuck patrolling for the night... I guess that means you and I will have time to get to know each other!" She took my hands in hers and pulled me towards a small couch on the other side of the room. We sat down simultaneously.

"Jacob was trapped in that object?" I asked her, still confused on what had happened.

She just laughed and leaned forward to put her hand on my cheek. She gave me a brief introduction of this thing called a "Cellular Phone" which means it didn't need to have a cord. It worked through satellites. Needless, I was still a bit incredulous

She smiled at me for a reason unknown. "You know, your parents should really enroll you in school while your here. It will help you become more accustomed to Washington. And it would be super fun!" She squealed and jumped up. "Let's go talk to daddy!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room again. I stumbled behind her.

We ran into Edward just down the hallway. Bella was standing beside him, looking at her daughter precariously. Edward sighed. "I don't know if this is the best idea, Renesmee..."

My own father came up behind me and wrapped his huge arms around my shoulders. "What idea? I want in on the fun!" He told Nessie. I laughed and took his hands in mine.

Nessie spoke loud and clear. "I think Amber should enroll in high school with me. It's not like it would be dangerous, I'll be in the same building as her and so will most of the pack."

I perked up from hearing the last word. "Oh, daddy, please!" I found myself turning around and making a sad face towards my father. "I promise I'll be on my best behavior." _Yeah, right,_ I said to myself.

He looked at me with a smile. "Of course, honey. I'll go talk your mother into it." And with that, he was off.

"Come on, Amber! I'll do your nails!" She squealed while pulling me off in a different directoin.

"Now, Nessie." Edward spoke up, "It's rude to hog our guest. Come on, Amber, and we'll all show you around to the rest of the house.

There was _more?_


	5. Strangers Like Me

"_I wanna know, can you show me?  
I wanna know about these strangers like me.  
Tell me more, please show me,  
Something's familiar about these strangers like me."_

_-Phil Collins_

I woke up quite unpleasantly. My bed was bouncing me up and inches off the bed. I opened my eyes and saw Nessie shaking my mattress below me, using one hand. I was starting to learn that this girl was cute... yet lethal.

"Wake up! Come on! We've only got an hour for you to get ready for your first day! Plus, Esme made you this amazing breakfast! You like omelets, right?" She went on and on, continuing to shake my bed.

"Nessie!" I screamed. "Stop!"

She stopped suddenly and gave me a smirk. "There you go, girl. Be assertive. You'll need plenty of that for today." She came over, grabbed me by the arms and pulled me out of bed. I towered more than a foot over her.

I ran over to the mirror. "Oh no! I must have grown again!" I felt on the verge of tears, until I realized that my hips were slightly poking into the material of my shirt. I pulled up the hem right below my bra and saw two defined curves on both sides of my body. "Oh!" I felt a smile pull onto my face, something I had hardly seen myself wearing for days. "Nessie, look!"

She appeared behind me in a half-second and grinned. "Told you so. Now, with those hips, you're going to have to borrow some of my clothes. Oh, my! The boys are going to be all over _you_."  
I blushed. "Wh-what do you mean?" I saw, placing my shirt back down and folding my arms over my slightly bigger bust.

"Boys love girls with curves, Amber. But, don't fall into their charm, okay? What you need is some one who loves you for what's on the inside and not the outside," she told me assuredly.

I shook my head. "I really don't plan on meeting boys that way anytime soon, Nessie."

She came and hugged me from behind. "Right. I forget you'll be leaving as soon as this fight is over. I'm going to miss you."

And in some odd way, even though I hadn't known her for more than 24 hours, I felt I might miss her too. I closed my eyes as she rested her head on my shoulder. I truly felt that Nessie was just like a sister to me.

Before I could get too mushy, I pulled away. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat." For once, I found myself not being led around by Ness, and I found my own way to the dining room. When I entered, I found at least twenty vampires staring back at me. There were absolutely silent.

"Oh, um. Sorry!" I apologized and turned to walk out of the room.

"Amber Hale Cullen!" I heard my mother hiss at me and I turned back to face her. I folded my arms across my chest and glared at mother.

"What?" I asked, with probably the least respect possible. I wasn't in the mood to hear my mother fuss about my hair or something.

"What are you wearing! I brought you up better than that! Pajama's in public? What are you thinking? And did you shower last night? Your hair's a-"

I had enough, so I cut her off. "I came down for breakfast, I didn't know the population of Washington would be sitting in the dining room!" I screamed at her.

Esme came up to me and handed me a plate of food, more than enough for Nessie and I both. "Sorry, honey. We were just discussing the arrival of the Volturi. Apparently, from Alice's visions, it may be a little while before they start to head West. Go ahead and eat your breakfast in the living room, if you please." She said sweetly, patting my back and pushing me slightly out the door, and into the living room.

"I am deeply sorry for the adversity with my mother," I told her and put my breakfast down on an end table.

She shook her head. "Don't apologize. It's natural to fight with your mother. It's hard to believe, but sometimes even Renesmee and Bella get very mad and throw things if they're fighting... well, usually it's just Nessie who has that tendency..." She trailed off.

I shuddered. Nessie throwing an object was just imaginable and yet frightening.

"Oh, yes," Nessie's voice approached from behind. "Remember that time I threw the couch and put a good hole right through the entrance wall?" She laughed and Esme sighed.

"How could I forget?" She smiled and gave Nessie a quick kiss on the cheek. "I trust you'll get Amber to school on time?"

Nessie nodded quickly. "Of course. Jacob's coming by to pick us up and bring us. After, we'll drop her off and then I'm going to stay the nights at the apartment for the rest of the week."

Esme scanned Nessie's face for some sort of emotion. "Try not to get Amber into trouble, all right? Or dirty. You know Rosalie." She gave Nessie one last knowing glare before leaving into the dining room again.

I looked over at Nessie. "Is there something I don't know about here?" I asked.

She smiled and shook her head. "Nope, nothing. Now, eat your breakfast." She shoved it at me and I gladly devoured it. It was strange how I almost inhaled the food. I was still hungry afterwords also.

Once I finished, Nessie took me upstairs and gave me a couple options about my wardrobe.

She ended up putting me in a mid-thigh dress that fit me pretty well.  
"That dress is supposed to be to your knees..." she said. "But, since your tall, it's sort of short." She was pointing out the obvious for some reason. "But, with your new found curves, it hugs you in all the right places!" She clapped her hands.

I tried to clap my hands with her but ended up just dropping my necklace that I had been trying to attach together. I bent over to pick it up and Nessie gasped. I stood up right immediately. "What?"

"Amber, you can't just bend down like that! If you do that at school your dress will ride up and everyone will be able to see down your neckline..." She informed me.

I blushed and put my hands around my waist as if to make me less uncomfortable. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize this was so low cut.." I vigorously tried to move the neckline up a little but Nessie swatted my hands down.

"No! It's meant to be that low, Amber. Just be cautious during the day, okay? You'll do fine." She smiled her smile and grabbed the necklace from the floor, bending her knees instead of bending down from the waist. "See? This is how you grab things. Now, this necklace... No. It overpowers the dress. Now let me get you some heels and a curling iron."

I ended up getting my own heels from my suitcase because my feet didn't fit in Nessie's shoes. She tried over and over to curl my hair, but it was still as flat as a board. I sighed. "Nessie, just leave it. I wasn't meant to have curls in my hair."

She frowned but quickly put mascara on my eyelashes and applied a little layer of lip gloss. I had never worn lip gloss before. I kept rubbing my lips together but Nessie said I'd smear it if I kept doing so.

Finally, she got me a jacket from her closet and tossed it to me, while retrieving one for herself.

"I don't need one, Nessie. I don't get cold." I was sure she already knew that, though.

"Right. But it's March, Amber. If people see you without a jacket they're going to think something's wrong with you. Plus, it helps cover up part of your dress so your dad doesn't see," she smiled slightly and put her own jacket on over her long low-cut shirt and tight jeans.

"Why does it matter if dad sees my dress or not?" I asked her, still holding the folded jacket in my arms.

She laughed. "Oh, Amber. Just... take my word, all right? Now! Here's Jacob! He's coming down the driveway!" Again she pulled me along until I was out the door and in the front yard. A blue vehicle came down the drive and a man stepped out of it. Jacob, obviously. He held his arms out and Nessie was in them in a dash. He kept kissing the top of her head and twirling her around in the embrace. Both of them were saying "I missed you" over and over under their breath.

It almost felt like I was interrupting a reunion. I turned back to the house and saw my parent's standing outside on the porch. I ran up to them and gave them both a hug.

"Have a good day at school, honey," my mom whispered into my shoulder after kissing it. I gave her a weird look. After all that had happened not long ago, she was seemingly nice. "And stay ladylike, that's an order." She walked back in the house. Ah, that was just more like my mother now. I rolled my eyes and turned to stride away.

Dad grabbed me from behind. "Don't talk to any boys, all right? Trust me, they only want one thing that you're not giving to them." I turned around to give him a strange look. Since when was dad worrying about me meeting boys? What was going on with my parent's today?

I nodded and he kissed my forehead. Again, I began to head towards Jacob and Nessie. Jacob had his arm around Nessie's waist and he was staring at me. I felt heat rush to my cheeks suddenly.

"Amber..." Jacob said. That was all he said in fact. He smiled, looked down at Nessie, then said my name again.

So, I did the only thing I was taught to do in these sort of situations. I reached out my hand towards him. "Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Jacob Black. May I take this time as an opportunity to thank you tens of times over for your giving rides to myself?"

Jacob boomed in laughter, sort of like my dad would do. He let go of Nessie and reached forward to shake my hand fast and vigorously. "Sure, sure. Nice to see you again, Amber..." His eyes looked from the house and back down to me. "Uh, Amber..."

"Cullen," I responded.

Nessie giggled and stepped forward to be side to side with Jacob. "Good, you can just pretend you were adopted by Esme and Carlisle, then..

Jacob leaned down to kiss her softly and I pretended to be fascinated with my shoes. "Now, Miss Cullen," I heard Jacob's voice call up. My head shot up and his hand was outstretched towards me. I finished the gesture by meeting our hands. Jacob led me to his truck and helped me in, though I am sure I could have gotten in myself.

I sat on the very right side of the truck while Jacob addressed Nessie as 'Mrs-to-be-Black' and helped her in to the other side. She scooted in to the middle and Jacob jumped in and made his truck roar to life. Nessie showed me how to buckle a seat belt and it felt quite odd.

Most of the ride, Nessie was humming 'some old tune' and Jacob was making his own words to go with it. It was quite random and childish, but I couldn't stop laughing. Nessie started laughing herself because she said I had the funniest laugh she ever heard.

I don't know about that, though. Once or twice, Nessie actually snorted while chuckling away. That caused Jacob to join in and me to clutch at my stomach. I am sure that everyone who may have looked in our vehicle would have thought we were insane!

When we stopped in front of this large building, I couldn't help but gasp. It was twice the size of the Cullen's mansion and full of people. Before I could get out myself, Jacob was already helping me out, and then Nessie.

Those two shared a kiss and then a secretive look. There was obviously something somebody wasn't telling me. Before I could try to guess, Nessie took me and dragged me through the school to the office. She easily enrolled me. I could tell she was using her eyes to charm the man who was signing the papers.

Nessie led me to this place called an 'English' class. It was full of pictures of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and various other authors I didn't know the names of. I took a seat next to Nessie and a man stood in front of the class and gave us instructions on what to do.

He looked at me briefly. "Oh, hello. I didn't see we had a new student. Stand up and introduce yourself," he told me.

I nodded, standing up onto my feet. "I'm, uh, Amber Cullen."

"Where are you from, Amber?" the man asked.

I looked down at Nessie in fear. She stood. "She's from Arizona, Mr. Collins. My parents just adopted her."

Mr. Collins nodded. "Well, kudos for the Cullens for being able to handle so many teenagers at once. Well, welcome to Kalaloch High, Amber. If you have any questions about the school, stay after class, all right?"

I nodded and sat back down. I felt very embarrassed, standing in front of all those people like that.

For the next hour, Nessie and I worked together to finish a packet about the book 'To Kill A Mockingbird' which she had already read. She answered most questions, but let me answer a few about differences of similes and metaphors and picking out different kinds of pronouns.

If this was all that school was, it was going to be quite easy.

The 'bell' rang, it was more of an annoying beeping noise, Nessie led me to her locker. She pulled some stuff out. "Now, we go to American History," she announced.  
History was a bit harder, because we were not allowed to work with anyone else. I read the chapter that we were supposed to read, and tried to pick out importance and idea but my brain felt fried after doing that for twenty minutes. I eventually shut my book and just sat there with my thoughts.

Nessie told me my next class I would have to do alone, since she was in Advanced Biology, and couldn't get me in that class. I just had to take the regular biology.

For once, I felt afraid in a classroom. The bell had rang just before I had opened the door to enter, so the entire class was staring at me. The female teacher instructed me to sit "over there". I looked at where she was pointing, and saw my familiar lab partner.

It was Nate, the boy from the airplane. I approached him slowly and sat down next to him carefully. He was smiling at me. "Amber! What a small world!" He said loudly, causing people to look at us with scowling eyes. Especially, a man who sat one table up from me. He just rolled his eyes at Nate, but kept glaring back at him every now and then.

For the first while, the woman explained what we were to do. We were going to be looking through microscopes and drawing what we saw. Nate was doing most of the work. But, his mouth kept wide open.

"I can't believe it! I mean, just yesterday I was on a plane with you. And now we're both here! Sitting at the same table, looking through microscopes! You know what? This must be a sign, Amber. You and I. On a plane, at a table in biology. We oughta hang out sometime! You know that?" He kept telling me over and over that we have to get together some time. He suggested over dinner or maybe a movie. I never responded to him, other than nodding. "How about Friday?" he asked. "What's your address? I got a GPS that will take me right where I want when I type in an address! Come on. I'll meet your folks, well.. I already met your father. Big guy. Big guy!" He said over and over, again.

It was weird, to feel that urge that I wanted to strangle some one. I felt like I would rather be lost in the Antarctic, or face nuclear weapons!

"Takoda Storm, Amber Cullen," the teacher's voice rang out louder than the dismissal bell. "The office just called. There's some one here to pick you two up."

I was astonished. I grabbed my books and ran out of the classroom. The guy who had been shooting glares at Nate was jogging at my side. I looked at him. His name was Takoda Storm.

He kept looking forward, as we went along to the office. As we went, two others came up to Takoda. "Hey, Tako!" one yelled. "What's the rush?"

Takoda didn't say anything, I was beginning to wonder if he was made of stone.

We reached the office quickly. When I stopped, the guy behind me ran right into my back. I gasped and turned around to apologize. That didn't happen, because somebody else had already grabbed me and was swinging me around like a toy doll.

"Amber!" He said, setting me down. "Remember me? I'm Elan!" I suddenly recognized him from the picture Alice had showed me. "I'm you father's younger brother." Elan smiled widely and hugged me.

"Geez, don't hurt the poor girl," said some one from behind. I turned to face him, and I remembered him from the picture. It was Embry.

"I'll hurt her if I want," Elan joked from behind. "She _is_ my niece."

I suddenly realized that I was standing in an office full of nine men and I picked out Nessie beside Jacob.

"Is something wrong?" Takoda went to Jacob to ask.

He shook his head. "Nope. I just figured, we'd do our honorary 'Welcome to the Pack' ceremonies for Amber," he pointed at me. The room that was full of laughter was now silent. Jacob went out the doors with Nessie on his side, and everyone followed in a line behind them. I was at the end of the line, behind Elan. He kept looking back at me with smiles.

Not that I should have commented on that, because I couldn't help from smiling at him myself.

We started walking toward the woods. By the time we had reached the tree line, the entire pack was back into yelling and shouting and laughing and moving. Delsin, I believe was his name, jumped on Embry's back and kept pulling on his hair as if he were a little child.

I felt an arm slither around my shoulder. It was Elan. "My neice," he smiled. "God, I just can't believe it!"

I smiled and agreed with him while an older pack member came up on my other side. He reached out his hand and I shook it. "Collin," he said, his dark brown eyes twinkling for some odd reason.

"Nice to meet your acquaintance, Collin." I kept my tone lady-like like mother would want me to be.

He laughed haughtily. "Nice to meet your acquaintance also, Amber." His hand was still clasped around mine, and neither of us were shaking them. He had huge, soft hands. I couldn't find it in me to pry it away.

I looked over at Elan to hide my red cheeks from this Collin guy, and what I saw made me laugh. Elan had gripped my shoulder tightly, sucked in his lips, and was staring wide eyed at Collin. He looked like he was trying to be mad, but he just looked silly to me.

"I swear to God, Collin..." Elan hissed. "If you just-"

Collin rolled his eyes and interrupted Elan. "I didn't, stupid. She's Sam's daughter! I wouldn't even think about it. Besides, if I had, it would have happened back when she was a baby."

I knitted my eyebrows together, very confused. "What are you talking about?" Well, I knew they were referring to me, but what did they mean by 'it'?

Elan lost his angry expression, and Collin jogged a little to catch up with another member of the pack.

Eventually, we had reached some sort of meadow. Everyone made a big circle around me, and I tried avoiding the attention by going over to Nessie. "Hey, Ness! What's going on?" I whispered to her.

She raised her hand to my cheek and showed me the latest member, Pat, getting initiated into the tribe. I saw brief images of Pat's hair getting cut with a knife, Jacob tying something around his ankle... and a couple other pictures.

Jacob left the circle and came back twenty seconds later with a log in his arms. He easily carried it towards the middle of the group and dropped it. Nessie grabbed me by the shoulders and sat me on the log. Embry came up to me and started to play with my hair randomly. To say the least, I was very confused.

"Ah, dahhhhling! Your hair's gawwwwgeous!" Embry cried out, using an odd voice. I looked up at him with very open eyes. "I'm just playing, geez," said he, with a more normal type of voice. "You got a sense of humor at all, Amby?" I suddenly felt the urge to reach up my hand and slap Embry something strong right across the face. His expression afterwords was absolutely priceless. At first he was shocked and then he was smiling.

The smile didn't leave his face as he grabbed me around my waist and threw me over his shoulder and hurdling toward the ground. Thanks to my new strength and agility, though, I was able to land on my feet and throw myself right back at Embry, tackling him to the ground. He quickly towered over me and had me pinned to the ground by my wrists, I wanted to try and kick him off me with my legs, but remembered my short dress.

"Say Uncle..." Embry laughed at my weak struggle.

"Never!" I giggled, remembering when my father used to play this game with me when I was younger, though, he always let me win. For a while I struggled, kicking and hitting Embry with all my might. With one powerful push, in which was the last of my strength, my feet contacted with Embry's stomach, sending him flying through the air. I took this as an advantage and ran over to him, bringing his hands behind his back and digging my high heel into his lower back.

"Say uncle..." I said while digging my heel further into his back.

"Uncle!" He screamed right away, gasping. I let go of him quickly.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! Are you all right?" I asked, bending down to get a look in his eye.

Quickly, Embry tried getting me into the same position, and I retaliated by grabbing his neck and locking it in my arms. He stood frozen. "Holy fuck," he whispered. "Are you sure this one's a girl?" He asked over towards Jacob.

I laughed and let go of him.

"Enough of the play," Jacob said sternly, though I could see his eyes look proudly upon me. He pulled out a pocket knife. Embry took the knife from him and pulled on my hair.

"If you don't mind me asking," I spoke before he could proceed to cut my hair. "Why is it that I must have short hair? Nessie showed me that all pack members have to do this, even Leah. But why?"

"If we don't cut our hair, it's really long when we're wolf. It's very inconvenient," Embry said, chopping into my hair without another word out of me.

I would have thought cutting hair with a knife would have hurt me, like Ponyboy in The Outsiders; a book my mother made me read, but it didn't hurt me in the least.

After he was done, Nessie pulled a small compact in her purse and handed it to me. I gasped when I first saw my reflection, my hair had been cut unevenly, coming down to a little below my earlobe. I couldn't deny that I didn't like it, though, it made me look dangerous. Mother wouldn't like it, and that made me laugh.

I turned to face Embry. "Thanks." I looked back at myself in the mirror and laughed some more, picturing my mother's face when she saw this. Then, I glanced up at Jacob. "Why does it matter to you all whether or not I have long hair when I'm phased?"

He smile quickly became serious. "Well, Leah's going to stop phasing soon, to have kids with her husband Dylan. That will leave us with only nine pack members, and no Beta's."

I shook my head. "No. I'm in no place to lead such a pack, Jacob." I did understand what beta meant, and I couldn't imagine why I would be chosen to do such a thing.

Some one spoke up, Quil, shouting and Jacob. "No way in hell, Jake! Look, I could tolerate Leah leading me around... but this girl's new, why wouldn't you chose me or Embry to take her place? We've been here a hell of a lot longer than her!" He looked furiously at me, and I felt myself shrink.

"You can't just pick some random person to be a leader, especially in a time as this! The Volturi will be here any day, and you trust her to fight along side of you?" Embry yelled at Jacob, just as Quil.

The outbursts led to more outbursts as Delsin and Brady joined in screaming at Jacob, and I couldn't believe my own ears.

"You all need to shut the fuck up," Takoda growled at all of them, out of nowhere. This caused everyone to grow quiet, .and I had a feeling that Takoda wasn't one who spoke very often. "I, for one, trust Jacob with this decision he's making, and if you feel differently you can just leave! We all saw how the girl won against Embry, she's obviously better than your pathetic asses."

I had to admit, I didn't like being called 'the girl', but I still felt grateful that Takoda had said that. And I guess I really hadn't noticed how I did beat Embry, the one who had been a wolf the longest in the pack.

"Thank you, Takoda," Jacob regarded him, and spoke to everyone else. "Amber is Sam's daughter, and a direct descendant of Levi Uley. She was made to be in this pack. And in a couple days, she's going to be runing the second night shift."

Everyone was absolutely silent after that. I had never felt like more of an outsider my entire life.

The next half an hour was Jacob explaining to me how they run night shifts: half the pack on one night, and the second half on the other night, alternating all the time. He then told me that I was to be on the first nights for a little bit, so he could train me himself. Leah would remain second night leader until I was ready.

"Where is Leah?" I asked him, very curious.

Embry laughed. "I told her to come, but she said she was 'busy' with Dylan," he snickered out.

"God, do those two ever stop to breathe?" Pat asked, chuckling himself.

Jacob then got a strip of leather out of his pocket, tied it to my ankle, and told me how I was to use it. He said it was best if I wore a t-shirt and shorts, and some that I'm able to get dirty. I looked over at Nessie.

"Don't worry, it's already arranged that we're going to see Leah tomorrow and she'll loan you some of her stuff. Then we can go shopping for anything else," Nessie assured me.

One by one, everyone left the small clearing. Once Jacob finally left for work, Nessie tried to get me to get back to school.

I shook my head. "No. I just want to go running a little," I told her.

"Well, okay... school's going to be over soon, so do you know your way home from here?"

I nodded. "Yes," I pointed West. "Trust me, I can smell home from miles and miles away." What I really meant was I could smell the vampire stench from forever away, but didn't want to offend her.

She gave me a quick hug. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Jacob and I will come pick you up," she smiled and left in a dash.

Finally, I was alone. All my anger that I had kept in could finally surface. I tore the heels off my feet and threw them at any trees around, digging holes through them. I knew I probably went a little to far when I started yelling profanities at Sam and Emily for leaving me, then at my mother and father for lying to me, then several members of the pack for thinking I wasn't good enough to lead them.

I would show them who I truly was, tonight, when I trained with Jacob.


	6. My Life

"_I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright,  
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home.  
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life.  
Go ahead with your own life, _

_Leave me alone."  
-Billy Joel_

Once I worked out most of my anger on innocent nature, I phased and ran like I told Nessie I was doing. Luckily, no one else was phasing at the time either. Jacob told me how we could hear each others every thought when we were phasing simultaneously.

I kept running West, far past the Cullen house. My plan was to reach the ocean and maybe float away.

I couldn't stand my mother nagging on me! I couldn't stand that Emmett had killed my real father! I couldn't stand being in a damned house full of horrid vampires! Whoever had put me on Earth, obviously didn't realize that they had made a mistake.

My entire life was a mistake, I said that to myself right before flinging myself off of a cliff and in to the unforgiving waters of the North Pacific. I'd be lying if I said the fall didn't hurt me. I yelped and gasped at the force of myself hitting the water; and I involuntarily phased backed to my human self.

I let the waves pull me underneath the surface. I prayed again and again that these would be my final moments and I would be taken to a place where my parents were.

Finally, my lungs felt like they would explode. I smiled and waited for the rest to happen, it was too late though, I was transformed back into my wolf and was at the surface again. I cried out, _Damn! Damn! Why couldn't you just let me have my way for once?_

_Amber? _A quiet voice said, and I recognized Collin's soft tone.

As much as I wanted to scream for him to leave me alone, I responded, _Yes?_

_If you think I'm just going to leave you alone and let you drown, you're insane. _I saw from his thoughts that he wasn't far from where I had been. I forced myself to get back on shore. _What's wrong, Amber? Why were you trying to kill yourself?_

I couldn't help but think of everything again, everything I had been thinking about before.

_Oh_, and there was almost a sigh in the voice, _Amber, you can't listen to the guys. They're stupid, and you're going to be a great leader. As for the whole 'Emmett killing Sam' thing, I don't know what to say. It just brings me back to when it first happened..._

In his mind, I saw how it all happened. The pack was celebrating a girl named Claire's fourth birthday. Sam, Emily, and I were on our way and we had somehow gotten in an accident. Jacob noticed that we weren't there, and he went to investigate. He found Emily's body in the car, and could smell Emmett's scent on her and Rosalie's scent in the empty car seat. He had gotten so angry that he ran back to the party and ordered the pack to look everywhere for Sam and myself. Eventually Collin himself had found Sam's body buried in the ground, sucked of his blood. They all decided to attack the Cullen's, then realized that both of my parents had gone, and not told anyone where they went. The search for me went on for an entire year. They hadn't found any clues to where I might be. The local newspaper concluded me dead, along with Sam and Emily.

I tried not to cry around Collin, but he noticed anyways when he saw my tear stained furry face. He quickly phased back, not bothering to be modest, and dressed in front of me. I did the same, figuring this would be typical when I was the only girl among nine men. Collin hugged me as I cried, and I felt guilty for taking his time.

"I'm sorry," I apologized over and over. "Why are you here anyways?"

"Don't be sorry," he muttered and kissed my forehead, causing me to shiver a little. His hands moved to my hips and I felt some weird sensation arise in my stomach. "Sometimes I like going running too, so I thought I'd phase and wander around a little."

"I mean, why did you come and stop me from drowning myself? And why are you here, calming me while I sob?" Perhaps it wasn't best to ask such straight forward questions, but his compassion was odd to me, since we had just formally met.

He looked at me, then the ground. "Being in this pack means that you're always going to have nine others who care for you. We're like siblings... we do everything together," he said quietly, and laughed. "Well, don't credit me for that. Jacob's the one who told us all that," he smiled back up at me.

I nodded. "Thanks Collin," I turned away from him to collect my thoughts and emotions privately.

After a minute or so, Collin's voice was there again. "Hey, are you busy Saturday night?"

I turned around to look at him suspiciously. "Not that I know of..."

"Well, before I have to go patrol, do you want to hang out? I know this great Italian restaurant we could eat at!" he said, rubbing his foot in the sand.

I raised an eyebrow at him. This somehow reminded me of books that I've read, where men take women for dinner and a movie. I giggled to myself. "Sure," I found myself saying, imagining what a girl character in a book would said to flirt a little. "If you're one minute later than seven, don't bother showing up at all." I gave him a huge smile, and took off running again, laughing to myself.

I had a date Saturday night! A real, god-forsaken date! I found myself skipping and dancing the rest of the way home.

When I came upon the house, I tried to sneak in through my window, but it was locked from the inside. I eventually went to the front door and ran in quickly. If my mother were to find me: my clothes soaking wet, my hair chopped off, and bare feet; she'd kill me!

"Amber Cullen," I heard a sharp voice whisper from behind me. I turned around to face my mother's wrath.

"Go ahead! Tell me that it's not proper for a lady to wear wet clothing! Tell me I look like a little boy with my short hair! Tell me I'm nothing better than a wild cat, running around without shoes! I'm listening, mother!" I couldn't even believe that came out of my mouth, but I couldn't back away from it now.

She looked speechless. She walked closer to me and picked up a lock of hair. "If you would've just asked... Alice could have cut it a lot nicer than this," she smirked.

I groaned and stormed up to my room. "I like it this way, mother." I slammed my door.

Just as I was about to take my anger out on my pillows, I saw Edward standing on the far side of my room. I gulped, remembering he could read my thoughts.

"Yes?" I asked, feeling myself shift into the polite, lady-like tone that mother grew me up speaking as.

Edward gave a small, sympathetic smile. "I sympathize with you for having to have been brought up by Rosalie. You don't have to act like that around me, Amber."

I nodded, trying to keep my head thoughtless, but that immediately got me thinking about everything I didn't want to know: the stench of vampires choking me 24/7, trying to kill myself, going on a date with Collin, etc.

"Is there something you need to ask me or talk to me about?" I questioned, folding my hands behind my back and looking at the floor nervously.

He took a few steps closer to me and put his cold hand on my shoulder. "I'm just worried about you trying to hurt yourself, Amber. I've heard about how you threw yourself out of a tree in Africa, and now about the cliff thing... You have to realize that there are many people who care about you and wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

I successfully resisted rolling my eyes. "Like who?" My mind went through the list of people I knew. I immediately concluded my parents that didn't care. Most of the pack obviously didn't care, after they way they talked about me.

"Your parents care about you, believe it or not," he replied, almost angrily.

"And how would you know that?" I could feel the brat side of me almost begin to rise.

He sighed. "I read their minds... not intentionally. But all day they were hoping you had a good time adjusting to school here. And, well, your father was a little worried about you meeting boys," he chuckled. "Which I can see happened. And also, Amber, everyone else here cares about you. Nessie, too, she's so excited to have a female friend. Jacob cares about you too, like a father would. He feels that he owes it to Sam to make sure you are safe. Obviously, Collin cares about you also..." he laughed and his smile formed crookedly onto his face.

I blushed, trying to hide it by lowering my head so my hair would act like a curtain.

Edward flashed over to the bedroom door, his hand already on the handle. I gave him a meek smile, not really feeling too satisfied with everything he told me.

"Just think about it, Amber. Think about how hurting yourself would effect everyone, all right?" he opened the door, but not before saying. "Jacob called while you were gone. He says he wants to come patrolling early tonight: eight o'clock."

I nodded and looked upon my wall clock and Edward exited the room. It was only four.

I felt his hand come onto my shoulder ever so slowly, and I just took a deep breath before giving him another glare, telling him to back off... again.

Maybe Nate was normal, with all this touch-y feel-y stuff. Ever since I had started going to school, he never stopped talking to me and touching me.

"Hey, Amber," he whispered, due to our individual work time in Biology. He then asked me the difference between the two endoplasmic reticulum; which I swear I had answered the exact question for him at least five different times. "Oh," he said, then put his hand down. He still made sure our shoulders were touching though.

Something inside me told me that this was the lady-like thing to do, let Nate touch me whenever. Something told me that he was a man, and that he was superior; so I should allow him the opportunity. When Quil heard me thinking this a couple nights ago while patrolling, he told me it was because of the media that women felt like this. Though, I hadn't been exposed to the media for real long.

The ''bell'' rang and I sprung up from my chair, grabbing my books in a rush.

"Hey, Amber, come sit at our table today!" Nate told me, enthusiastically. He was pulling on my shoulder as I was still gathering my things.

I kept my head down and shook it. "Absolutely not. If you want to sit by me at lunch, you come to my table," I offered him. Even though I rather he didn't sit with our 'group', I figured I better be nice and offer. I started to walk out of the classroom and towards my locker. He followed me on my left, and Takoda came next to me on my right.

As I stopped at my locker, I could see Nate looking over at Takoda, scared. I sighed then glanced up at Takoda to see him making a menacing face. I shook my head and murmured "Be nice".

Takoda and I had sort of formed a silent bond. Whenever we had to work with partners in biology, I claimed him right away so I wasn't with Nate. As rude as that sounded, I wasn't quite ever in the mood to be rational with Nate.

Speaking of Nate, I felt a arm around my shoulder. "Aw, come on! Come sit with us normal people for once!" I glared at him, then shook his arm off.

"Is there a problem here?" Elan's 'big brother' voice boomed down the halls. He always tended to use that when he saw me near some guy... in this case, Nate.

I really couldn't explain the bondage I now had with certain members of the pack. It was only fifth day in Washington, but sharing each others minds every other night kind of made me open up to them.

It was a little emotional to me, because everyone then saw my suicidal tendencies. Jake was furious at me, screaming at me in his head that if "I dare do that again, I will answer to him".

At the moment, I was only working with Jake, Quil, Pat, and Delsin. Once I had proved myself to Jake, I was allowed to start controlling the second night shifts, ordering around Collin, Elan, Takoda, and Embry.

Nate followed me through the lunch line, followed by Elan, Takoda, Nessie, and Pat... in that order.

"Hey, you busy tonight Amber?" Nate asked, pulling on my shirt sleeve while I was reaching out for a bread roll.

"Yup, she is," Elan commented right away. I looked up at him, slightly annoyed. "What? You know you've got to work tonight!"

I grunted. Sometimes Elan went too far with being 'big brother'. I looked up at him evilly, carefully not revealing my facial expression to Nate.

"My shift doesn't start until ten..." I trailed off, pretending to contemplate. Nate's eyes lit up, and Elan looked like he was going to throw his bread roll at Nate's head. Pat took it out of his hand though and ate it, while in line.

"We could go to the fair!" Nate recommended, following me now to our lunch table. He didn't sit down once we got there though. "This is the last weekend it's in town!" He exclaimed. I then proceeded to give him my address and told him to come at six.

Once he left to his own lunch table, I looked smugly over at Elan, chewing on a few baby carrots.

Nessie was giggling beside me, most likely at Elan. He looked like he was about to explode. Takoda went silent, not even picking up anything on his tray. Pat stood up and started tugging on his arm. "Come on! You can't phase here, dude!"

Elan settled down quickly and lunch went on normally. Nessie kept pestering me about Nate, and I assured her that I wasn't going on a date with him... just hanging out. And subconsciously I knew I was only doing it to annoy Elan.

"Aren't you going out with Collin on Saturday?" Pat asked me, loudly so Elan would hear it. I blushed, remembering the half the pack knew about Collin's and mine date.

"What?" Elan looked at me, his eyes burning. "No, no way! He is too old for you!"

"Elan, please," I rolled my eyes. "It's hardly any of your business."

"Don't roll your eyes at me!" He said harshly. "Collin's too old. He's experienced too much with girls, trust me, I hear into his head every other night. You're not about to become one of his toys."

"Don't you think that's a little dramatic?" I whispered, now aware that more people were tuning into our argument. "I've heard inside his head too, and that was about sixteen years ago when he had all those girls. I was just a baby at that time."

"Exactly," he growled, slamming his tray down, then running out. I groaned furiously, then continued eating my food.

No one talked after that. Well, except Pat. Pat always talked. He went on and on about how Elan was overreacting and how I was right. Nessie subtly rested her hand on my lower arm.

_Your giving me details next hour, _said she._ I can't believe you didn't tell me about you dating Collin!_

I then spent my entire fourth hour telling Nessie how I wasn't technically dating Collin, but I couldn't really deny that I had no feelings for him either. She responded by saying how happy she was for me.

Truth be told, there were only two things on my mind. One was the fact that Elan was upset with me and could be off doing god-knows-what. The second was more like an epiphany... Once the Volturi had come and we fought them, how could I ever leave Washington, my new home?

The thoughts were erased from my head the instant the bell rang.

After school, Nessie found me and walked out with me to Jacob's car. I refused the ride, promising them that I was going running before I went home.

Jake stiffened up from the driver's seat. "Get in the car, Amber. I'm not letting you go into the woods alone..." his eyes burned me with his fiery glare. Nessie looked at us back and forth, obviously confused. But there was no way I could sit still for any longer after everything with Elan today.

Before I could argue with Jake, I heard a strange vehicle pull up awfully close to the car. It was almost like a bicycle, but louder and bigger. Then I saw Collin get off it and head my way. "Hey Amber," his smile was genuine, and I forgot all about the fight with Elan. Collin's shirt hugged his intense muscles that I noticed for the first time. "Oh, hey Jake..." he said shyly, for once, as he saw that Jacob was present. "I was just here to offer, um, Amber a, um, ride. But I can see you've already got one?" He turned to ask me the second portion of his dialogue.

I sucked in my lips and shoved me hands in my pockets, unaware on why I was acting so weird.

"Sure," Jacob said with a smirk. "Just make sure she goes directly home, all right?" And that was that. Jake drove off, but not before giving Collin the infamous 'Alpha' glare that was made to be obeyed.

Often times I felt that the 'Alpha' glare didn't affect me. I usually just did what Jacob said because it made sense, and it never went against my will.

Collin showed me more about his 'bicycle' which he called a 'motorcycle'. Eventually he showed me how to ride it, and I soon found myself hugging him from behind while he drove fast to the Cullen house. I tried to sniff him a little, hoping he wouldn't notice. He smelled so wonderfully good, I couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to smell him.

When we were at the house, Collin reminded me about our date the next day and I told him I was looking forward to it. He kept running his hand through his hair, I noticed. I was trying not to laugh at how awkward our dry conversation was, but that didn't work too well. I finally just told him "Farwell," and ran into the house fast.

I was greeted by a very serious father. His arms were folded over his chest.

"So you have a date tomorrow?"

I pretended to be fascinated with the floor and just vaguely nodded at him.

"With Collin Urshak?"

"Yup," I said, child-like. 'Yup' was a slang word I had picked up from hanging around normal American teenagers all day. It was an odd synonym for 'yes'.

"What time?"

"Seven."

"Where?"

"Some Italian restaurant."

"Is he picking you up here?"

"Yup."

"Good," my father smiled, breaking his series of questions. He uncrossed his arms. "I can't wait to finally use my 'overprotective father' act."

I groaned. "Dad, no!"

He laughed, and pretended he was holding a huge gun in his hand. One like he kept back in Africa, "Just in case," he always said.

He spit on the nice floor and closed one of his eyes, then hunched his back. "So, you've taking quite a liking to my daughter, huh, boy?" He said, using a Southern twang that I had only heard once or twice in my life. "Well, what makes you so special, huh? If she's not home by ten, boy, this gun's barrel will be empty and the bullets will be in your ass."

"Dad!" I squealed, trying not to laugh, but still horrified.

"I hear a distressed teenager nearby!" Esme sing-songed as she walked in the entrance from the kitchen. "I made you some food, sweetie," she smiled at me. I raced in the kitchen at my full speed. On the table was one full plate of just hashbrowns, another with cut up beef, and a third with chicken legs practically rolling down a hill of other chicken parts. I licked my lips.

As I dug into the food, I was thankful that my mother wasn't around. Whenever she saw me eat so much, she's subtly make comments about how fat I was going to get. Not that I cared! The entire pack told me that they ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted and only gained muscle. My mom didn't understand that I was just a creature who needed a lot of food for energy.

After I finished eating, I figured I should have probably called Elan. I still felt bad for our argument at the lunch table today.

I went up to my bedroom and shut the door, wishing for once it would keep nosy vampires from eavesdropping.

Nessie had given me a full lesson on the use of a cell phone. I didn't understand how you could get on this thing called 'Internet' or how you could play little games, but I did know how to look some one up through my contact's list. I scrolled down until I found Elan's name. I paused for a moment, not remembering what to do next, then decided to press the green button. It worked. I heard a bunch of ringing noises.

"Hello," Elan's voice sounded, very neutral.

"Elan! Look, can we-"

"This is Elan. I'm not here at the moment, but leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as possible," he said, still with middle emotion.

I heard an odd ding noise. "What do you mean you're not there? I hear you and we need to talk about today. I'm really, honestly sorry. What I did today was inexcusable and I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me."

There was silence, he said nothing. At first I thought he may be processing this all, but it took a very long while.

"Well," I said, plopping down on my bed in defeat. "When you feel like talking will you call? Farewell." I hung up and sighed deeply.

I lay on my bed a long while, staring at my cell phone, begging it to ring.

It seemed that recently I did nothing but make everyone mad. Elan was mad. Mother was furious, so furious she wouldn't talk to me. Even Edward was frustrated with me. I felt like my life lay in ruins. There was this aching inside of me that wanted to meet my real mother and father.

It seemed odd that I had met no other relatives other than Elan. Elan was only a toddler when Sam died, so he doesn't remember too much of him. What I hear from the guys I've been patrolling with, Sam would get very bossy. I heard about the entire dilemma about when Nessie was born, and I couldn't believe my father had though such things.

My biological mother was a whole different story. The pack said Emily was a wonderful cook and had a great heart. They told me all about why she had her scars, and that she still loved Sam unconditionally.

Quil was the one who told me about my mother's cousins: Leah and Seth. They both lived in Port Angeles. Seth was married with four kids, and Leah was engaged to a guy named Dylan. Leah never imprinted on Dylan, but everyone could clearly see they were a match "made in heaven", as the guys said.

Then there was Claire, another cousin of mine. She was Quil's imprint, and she was very promiscuous. Quil was constantly ranting about Claire's boyfriend. Apparently the guy had tendencies to yell at her and threaten to hit her. Quil was very protective of her, and often interrupted their kissing sessions.

As my mind set out on my family members, I instantly felt better.

My head started to spin as I heard an unfamiliar car speeding down the driveway. _Shit_, I though, using the word that the pack used a lot. I had forgotten all about my "date" with Nate!

I flew down the stairs, and out the door. Everyone in the house gave me an odd look, but I ignored them. Nate parked and stepped out of his automobile with brightly colored flowers in his hand. I looked at him strangely.

"What?" He laughed while handing them to me. "Never seen flowers before?"

I sighed. "Um, just let me set these inside." I only meant for me to go inside, but sure enough, Nate pushed himself in too. The house was silent as Esme, Carlisle, Edward, Jasper, and dad practically stared right at Nate. Which was odd, I thought, where were Alice, Bella, and mom?

"Umm, this is Nate," I said nervously. "Nate this is my mom and dad," I gestured towards Esme and Carlisle. "And these are my brothers." Dad stood up in a flash.

"Hey, I know you!" Nate pointed and shouted loudly. "You sat next to me on the plane, remember? Here I thought you were her father, but your her brother. Whoa! How old are you? Do you lift often? You know, I lift weights a lot myself, to help with my wrestling career some day, you know." Nate was off, and there was no stopping him. I gave the Cullen's a sympathetic look and ran to find a vase for the flowers.

When I returned, I almost drug Nate out of the house.

"You probably want a coat, Amber. It's going to get chilly tonight," he said to me, once we were already in the car.

I tried not to groan and went inside to receive a jacket.

"You're going out with that guy?" Said a booming voice behind me as I was retrieve a light leather jacket that was Nessie's.

I jumped up, frightened. I turned around to face him. "No, just 'hanging out', as teenagers say. Just going to the fair."

"So is it a tradition now to bring flowers for some one you're going to 'hang out' with?" It wasn't that he was angry, but more confused.

"Like I should know! These American traditions change everyday!" I pulled on my jacket while using that line that I often heard Alice say when looking at fashion magazines. Which made me wonder. "Where are Alice, Bella, and mother?" I asked him, reaching for the door.

Dad sighed and scratched the back of his neck. He looked sort of upset, but maybe I was just to critical when judging his stance and tone of voice. "Shopping, where else?" He opened the door for me and I went outside. In the pit of my stomach I could feel that something was going on. I was very scared of what that might be.

I didn't get a word in the entire ride to the fair. Nate was going on and on about his wrestling "career". He started then talking about how he thought he would be able to take on my "brother". I tried not to laugh as I pictured scrawny Nate against my vampire father. The boy truly was courageous.

When we got there, he insisted on paying for everything. The way in, the tickets for rides, the games, and such. He took me on very scary rides, and I almost threw up a few times. I had a weak stomach for a wolf, and I knew the boys would be picking on me all night. "Oh, Nate, I do have to be home be ten o'clock, okay?" I let him know, remembering I had patrol tonight.

Something in me wanted to just phase there, right in front of those people, and I knew something was wrong. I tried to get Nate to bring me home, but he kept feeding me such yummy but very greasy food! I think I tried just about a deep-fried everything!

He tried to get me to dance with him, but I claimed I was sick from the food and rides. He was reluctant at first, but got me home ten minutes after eight. I knew I was "screwed", as the boys would say, since Jake hated when people were late.

I ran through the house to dispose of my jacket and purse. I noticed even more people were gone than earlier. It was just Esme and my dad home now. Dad tried to talk to me, but I told him I had to go.

I flew out of the house, towards the back yard. I undressed faster than ever and phased.

_Finally! _Pat cried out.

_What's wrong? _I pleaded, realizing that Quil and Embry were absent.

_It's Claire_, Jake said, and I could tell he was trying not to scream at me for being late.

_Claire?_ I thought, confused. _Is she all right?_

_Her douche of a boyfriend got in a huge fight with her tonight. She's hospitalized_, Pat said.

I felt like I was underwater and like I was about to burst. _I have to see her, _I told them.


End file.
